[/color]David Gibson writes
"Just last month we explored the new approach that the Vatican's once-stodgy daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, has taken in covering pop culture -- a shift that has left more than a few eyebrows raised and lips pursed, especially among the more tradition-minded."

"Well, now the pope's newspaper has really stirred up the waters, and not just among old fogies, by publishing a "semi-serious guide" to the 10 best rock albums of all time. Drum roll please: The Top 10 albums are, in no particular order:
The Beatles' "Revolver"
Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon"
Oasis' "(What's the Story) Morning Glory?"
Michael Jackson's "Thriller"
U2's "Achtung Baby"
Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours"
Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly"
Carlos Santana's "Supernatural"
Paul Simon's "Graceland"
David Crosby's "If I Could Only Remember My Name."
"Some songs seem to have been written yesterday . . . while others still send shivers down the spine for their illuminating simplicity and musical thrust," the writers of the article said about "Thriller," according to Chiara Vasarri's translation of the article at the Wall Street Journal's music blog. (L'Osservatore's article was careful not to mention that Pope Benedict XVI hates rock-and-roll, and once said that the musical sense of the younger generation "has been stunted since the beginning of the '60s by rock music and related forms.")

Outraged by what got on the Vatican paper's list and what was left off? You're not alone. Apparently making solemn (if not infallible) pronouncements on the "best" of rock music is at least as controversial as issuing declarations on birth control or gay marriage.

At InsideCatholic.com, editor Brian Saint-Paul called the list "ridiculous."
"I'll reluctantly give you the Beatles' 'Revolver' in the top slot, and Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' is a no-brainer (though 'The Wall' is better)," Saint-Paul writes. "But Carlos Santana's 'Supernatural,' David Crosby's 'If I Could Only Remember My Name,' and (choke) Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours'? Please. This is the song list you blast at me if I'm ever holed up in a warehouse with hostages."
Saint-Paul added that "Led Zeppelin IV" was a no-brainer -- "that's just science" -- and he was incredulous that the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main St." and Nirvana's "Nevermind" didn't make the cut.

His colleague at InsideCatholic, Deal Hudson, said the list ticked him off so much he was thinking of renewing his call for the resignation of L'Osservatore's new editor, Giovanni Maria Vian. (That last quip was an inside joke -- Hudson has suggested Vian be dumped given the editor's benevolent views on Barack Obama.) "How can anyone take such a list seriously and not include the Moody Blues' 'Nights in White Satin'?" Hudson asked.

Other commenters thought the absence of the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" was "a sacrilege," and there was also a lively debate on the story at First Things, where Joe Carter wondered if Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski was now editing L'Osservatore, given the emphasis on "geezer rock" music.
" 'Thriller' deserves a place on the list, but I can't imagine how the others made the cut. U2 and the Beatles should be included but 'Achtung Baby' and 'Revolver' aren't even their best albums (those would be 'Joshua Tree' and 'The White Album'). And who in their right mind thinks that any albums containing the talentless Wyclef Jean warbling 'Maria Maria' [on 'Supernatural'] or the Gallagher brothers singing 'Champagne Supernova' [on 'Morning Glory'] belong on an all-time best list? Are they trying to convince us that rock really is the devil's music?"
"Clearly," Carter concluded, "like L'Osservatore Romano itself, this list is a work in progress." (Many conservatives, as you can tell, weren't terribly pleased with the revamped L'Osservatore even before the rock list.)

One verdict Carter did agree with the Vatican paper on -- snubbing Bob Dylan.

The authors of the piece, Giuseppe Fiorentino and Gaetano Vallini, said that Dylan was left off despite his "great poetic vein" because, as the WSJ put it, he opened the door to generations of unprofessional singer-songwriters who have "harshly tested the ears and patience of listeners" with their tormented stories.

That judgment certainly lit up the comment boxes even more. ("I now have my doubts about infallibility," quipped Francis Beckwith, a recent high-profile convert to Catholicism who had been president of the Evangelical Theological Association.)

Dissing Dylan was also interesting given that in 1997, the late Pope John Paul II hosted a rock concert in Bologna for 200,000 young people called "Jesus Live Superstar." The concert came after a beatification Mass and in the midst of the country's Eucharistic Congress, normally a solemn liturgical celebration. The concert's headliner -- after the pope -- was Dylan, who serenaded John Paul with "Knocking on Heaven's Door," perhaps intending the classic make-out song as a single-entendre tune for that evening.

Dylan also performed his famous ballad "Blowin' in the Wind," and afterwards John Paul offered his own riff, asking, "How many roads must a man walk down? One! There is only one way for man, and that is Christ, who said, 'I am the way.' It is He who is the way to truth, the way to life."

Then again, John Paul met frequently with Bono, the lead singer for U2 and a prominent poverty fighter, who dubbed him "history's first funky pontiff" and eulogized him at his death as "the best frontman the Roman Catholic Church ever had.""
By David Gibson